How to Grow and Cook Kohlrabi and Rosemary

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Kohlrabi and rosemary pair wonderfully, and they're readily available as fresh crops through colder days.
Kohlrabi and rosemary pair wonderfully, and they're readily available as fresh crops through colder days.
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Kohlrabi yield edible leaves, and the crispy orbs are excellent winter keepers.
Kohlrabi yield edible leaves, and the crispy orbs are excellent winter keepers.

Many people have never tasted alien-looking kohlrabi, but when they do, they find the crisp texture a nice surprise. Though related to cabbages, turnips and broccoli — kohlrabi translates from German to “cabbage turnip” — kohlrabi is milder than those brassicas. I like to spark up its pleasant, distinctive flavor with an assertive herb. During winter months, when I cook my stash of kohlrabi, the herb I choose is often the rosemary grown in a pot that I’ve brought indoors. Kohlrabi and rosemary pair wonderfully, and they’re readily available as fresh crops through colder days.

What Is Kohlrabi?

Kohlrabi is usually considered a root vegetable, although technically its round globes are enlarged stem bases. Unlike true root vegetables, such as carrots and parsnips, kohlrabi doesn’t grow underground.

A kohlrabi “root” perches on the soil surface, sustained by a fibrous system of true roots below ground. It’s an odd-looking, smooth-skinned orb with stiff stalks protruding from various points on its surface, like antennas pointing to the sky. The stalks on the sides bear large, dark green leaves — similar to collards — with new, smaller foliage sprouting from the top. Kohlrabi leaves are edible. So are the stalks, but, in my view, they’re too tough to be worth the trouble of peeling and cooking.

Similar to its cabbage-family relatives, kohlrabi likes fertile soil with plenty of organic matter, and does best in cool weather. You could plant an early crop of baby kohlrabi for a late spring treat, but if you have to choose only one season, a fall crop makes more sense. We sow kohlrabi seed indoors in midsummer, and, as with most brassicas, set it out in the garden when the seedlings are about 3 weeks old. Then, we leave it in the ground until a hard frost is predicted. To harvest, we cut the orb at the base with loppers — the tissue there is too tough for a knife.

  • Published on Jan 7, 2016
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